[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 108 (Friday, June 23, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E889-E890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 STRENGTHENING CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. MIKE JOHNSON

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 22, 2017

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my 
deep concerns with H.R. 2353, the Strengthening Career and Technical 
Education for 21st Century Act, also referred to as the CTE 
Reauthorization Act. This bill reauthorizes the Carl D. Perkins Career 
and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins Act) to help more 
Americans enter the workforce with the skills necessary to compete for 
and succeed in high-skilled, in-demand careers. The bill also makes 
several other changes and funding modifications to the current program.
  Louisiana highly values vocational and technical education and 
includes these skills in all public schools. These contributions are 
vital to Louisiana's Fourth Congressional District. With more than 25 
schools in our district focused on careers in technical education, I am 
proud to represent many hardworking Louisianians who are skilled in 
hands-on labor. For these reasons, I cannot in good conscience support 
this bill knowing it could result in Louisiana losing critical funding 
over the next several years.
  As well-intended as this legislation may be, it will not benefit all 
states equally. A study conducted by the Congressional Research Service 
examined the bill's modified formula for allocating grants under the 
Perkins Basic State Grants Program, and found that Louisiana will lose 
money in nearly every scenario it calculated. In fact, according to 
this analysis, Louisiana would face some of the most significant 
decreases among all states in each scenario examined. Decreasing our 
state's funding level for technical career education would be a great 
detriment to our efforts and exactly the opposite of what H.R. 2353 is 
intended to do.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great concern that I oppose the current CTE 
Reauthorization Act. I believe we can do better by the constituents in 
Louisiana's highly-skilled workforce. Moving forward, I will do 
everything in my power to work for our students and teachers of the 
technical education field to ensure they are not left behind and are 
provided the resources they need to keep our communities strong and our 
economy growing.

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